The former vice president Mike Pence declared that he would not support Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee for president in 2024.
In an interview with Fox News Channel, Pence said, "It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year."
"I'm incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world," he was quoted as saying.
Pence, who served as vice president from 2017 until 2021, had differences with Trump after he refused to overturn the 2020 election results ahead of the January 6 riot.
Trump's 2024 campaign, according to Pence, presents him as abandoning the conservative stance on the "sanctity of human life" and cutting the national debt.
However, he did not reveal whom he would vote for.
"I'm going to keep my vote to myself. I would never vote for Joe Biden," he said. "How I vote when that curtain closes, that'll be for me. I'm a Republican."
Furthermore, Pence also criticized how Trump changed his stance on TikTok, going from supporting a ban to signing an executive order to outlaw the app due to its ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance.
By a resounding vote of 352-65, the House of Representatives passed a bill mandating that ByteDance either sell TikTok or have it banned in the US. Even though Trump is against the legislation, only fifteen Republicans voted against it.
"In each of these cases, Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that's why I cannot in conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign," he said.
Pence's decision puts him among a growing number of high-ranking Trump administration officials who have refrained from endorsing their former boss's campaign for the presidency. While the majority of Republican lawmakers and other GOP officials have thrown their support behind Trump, a vocal minority has persisted in opposing his candidacy.
Earlier, during his presidential campaign Pence said that his life was put in danger on Jan 6 riot, and he urged Republican primary voters not to choose Trump as their White House candidate this year.
Pence had ended his bid for the Republican nomination in October before any primary votes were cast.
"I believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again," he had said during his campaign launch speech.
